Introduction

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, marijuana is known by different names, such as weed, cannabis, pot, hemp etc. It is a mossy type of plant and refers to the dried flowers, leaves, stems, and seeds of cannabis plants. People commonly take them through smoking, vaping, or consuming marijuana-infused food. Then, cannabis will be carried to the brain via blood circulation. They bind to receptors and further change our behaviours.

Marijuana contains more than 100 components (cannabinoids). Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) is the main active component that changes people’s mood and behaviour, and causes the “high” (hallucination or paranoia). Another well-known active chemical is cannabidiol (CBD,) but it does not cause a “high.” CBD reduces the psychoactive effects caused by THC and lower anxiety, which inspired the development of plant-based marijuana drugs. The Food and Drug Administration has approved a cannabis-derived drug, Epidiolex, a purified form of CBD. This drug can be used to treat seizures associated with Lennox-Gastaut syndrome, Dravet syndrome, and tuberous sclerosis complex. Additionally, the FDA approved Marinol, Syndros, and Cesamet, three synthetic cannabis-related drugs.

While specially treated marijuana can be used medically, it still poses a number of health risks. In this website, we want to focus on the association between marijuana use and depression.

Motivation

There are around 48 million people in US using marijuana, and it could lead to various health impacts. As more and more states legalize marijuana, marijuana use has been causing significant social impacts and attracting a vast amount of public attention. The legality of marijuana use remains controversial in the US. Each state has their own restrictions on their marijuana laws for both medical and recreational purposes. Based on data from the “World Population Review,” by July 2022, 14 states have fully legalized the use of marijuana. In this project, we will evaluate the association among marijuana use and depression, and we would like to propose recommendations for future studies and policies.

Video: Script Cast

Website Overview

In this project, we aim to understand the association between marijuana use and mental health burdens based on the 2019 NSDUH data set. A wide range of demographic and sociodemographic variables, such as sex, age, and region, will also be stratified or adjusted in the data analysis step. We want to provide suggestions on marijuana legalization for future substance prevention programs and policymakers.

In the “Descriptive Info” section, you can find:

  • Time-since-last-marijuana-use in different age groups
    • Age distribution in time-since-last-marijuana-use groups
    • Direct comparision among age groups
  • Marijuana use in the past 30 days
    • Number of days used marijuana in past 30 days
    • Marijuana use in the past 30 days by metro area
  • Age when pwople first started using marijuana
  • Depression prevalence pattern

In the “Dashboard” section, you can find:

  • Mapping marijuana legalization
  • Marijuana legalization year

In the “Statistical Analysis” section, you can find:

  • Depression by socio-demographic characteristics
    • Youths (12-17 years old)
    • Adults (18+ years old)
  • Logistic regression and hypothesis testing
    • Youths (12-17 years old)
    • Adults (18+ years old)
  • Finding and summary

In the “Data Source” section, you can find:

  • Background information about 2019 NSDUM
  • Why we pick 2019 NSDUM

For more detailed information, please visit the “Project Report”.

Collaborators

Fengdi Zhang (fz2328) : https://github.com/fz2328
Tianyou Wang (tw2838) : https://github.com/AliceWTY
Qiaoyi Xu (qx2222) : https://github.com/qiaoyixu
Chaoqun Zhou (cz2689) : https://github.com/cz2689